The Kelpie of Loch Fey

Nestled amidst the Scottish Highlands lies the quaint little village of Fay. Named after the nearby Loch Fey, a sprawling lake amongst lush hills and forests.

The correct spelling of the name was long debated among locals. And it wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century the final decision was reached to spell the village name ‘Fay’ with an ‘a’ – evoking the tales of old of the fairies and elves said to have once roamed these lands in ancient times. While Loch ‘Fey’ was to be spelled with an ‘e’ – meaning ‘fated to die’.

And for good reason...

According to local legend, a fierce battle had occurred one night in 1498 near the loch. A Scottish warrior, heavily wounded and dying, dragged his body to the shore of the loch to alleviate his suffering. There, an evil and hungry water kelpie emerged from the lake and, seemingly, took pity on him. The kelpie told the dying warrior he could save him from death. The warrior, sensing the kelpie’s offer wasn’t in his favor, asked what the kelpie wanted from him in return. The kelpie replied he’d require one year of servitude as payment. Despite not trusting the kelpie, the warrior took the bargain, driven by his longing to see his true love again. The kelpie took a silver necklace from his own neck and put it around that of the warrior. The moment the clasp was fastened, the warrior was enslaved and transformed into a kelpie-like being himself. Forced to obey every order the kelpie gave him.

For more than a century, the kelpie had been unable to feast on humans from the village – for a witch had once cast a protective spell, making it impossible for the kelpie to harm them. But the witch’s spell didn’t extend to the enslaved warrior. Unable to remember anything he did while under the kelpie’s curse, the warrior lured innocent people into the loch to their deaths for the kelpie.

After a year had past, the warrior came to the kelpie to be set free. But the kelpie had never harbored the intention of letting the warrior go. The warrior tried to appeal to the kelpie’s consciousness and reminded him of their bargain. Eventually, the kelpie agreed to let the warrior roam freely between dusk and dawn that night. And if he found his true love and she agreed to marry him before sunrise, the spell would be broken. Without a minute to waste, he warrior transformed into a horse – for he too, like a kelpie, could shapeshift either into a horse or back into his human form when on land. He set off galloping into the night and with only an hour to spare before sunrise, he’d reached the dwellings of his true love. But before he could shapeshift into his human form and show himself, to his unbearable sorrow, he discovered she’d already married another in his absence. Heartbroken, and unwilling to disturb her newfound happiness, the warrior returned to Loch Fey. Where, to his surprise, he found the water kelpie slain.

During the night, while the warrior had been away, a group of villagers – enraged by the lives the kelpie’s insatiable hunger had claimed during the last year – had gathered and overpowered the water beast. But the death of the kelpie didn’t lead to the warriors freedom. For only the kelpie himself had had the power to remove the bridle – the silver necklace – from the warriors neck. Unable to remove the necklace himself, the warrior was doomed to remain under the kelpie's curse. Some of the kelpie’s curse, however, did fade and the warrior started to remember all the awful things the kelpie had commanded him to do.

Tortured, heartbroken, trapped and unable to die, the warrior vanished deep into the lake, never to be seen again. Only sometimes, over the centuries, a villager would claim to hear the haunting yet beautiful song of the warrior ripple across the surface of the loch. Or see a beautiful, chestnut colored stallion roam the surrounding forests and hills between dusk and dawn.